Heat can adversely affect a horse's health and well-being. Heat stress in horses can cause weight loss, high body temperatures, low performance expectations, dramatic water intake, anhidrosis, and, eventually, potentially fatal ailments such as heat stroke. As the progression from mild stages of trouble to a final life threatening stages can be quick, it is critical to intervene immediately when the risk of heat stress loom large. As it is impractical and expensive to air-condition most horse stables, other heat reducing solutions must be implemented, such as showering a horse in cool water or applying a cooling device. Unfortunately, a shower is not always practical and many prior art cooling devices require ice or other chilled media, complex pumps and plumbing for circulating a cooling fluid, or electronic heat transfer equipment that requires a power source and a heat dump. For example, a Peltier heat pump produces a temperature gradient when current is supplied across dissimilar metals. While useful for temporary cooling a small localized area, such a heat pump is notoriously inefficient and wholly impractical for halting the downward spiral of an overheated horse.
What is needed is a reliable cooling device that is easy to use, reliable, does not require pumps or electric power, is capable of maintaining a safe body temperature, and is capable of quickly reducing the temperature of a horse at risk of heat stress.
The invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems and solving one or more of the needs as set forth above.